COFFIN
Chapter 21
You have the right.
W
hen people hear that I made my own con at the age of 46, they
react one of two ways: “You are so strange and morbid. at’s
just weird. Who does that?” Or, “I have always wanted to make my own
con.”
As a furniture maker, I can’t imagine asking some other woodworker
to make a crate for my nal remains. Or, even worse, asking my family
to buy a mass-manufactured con when I can put one together from
home-center pine.
Yes, this is legal. e Federal Trade Commission’s “Funeral Rule” is
specic about it. You have the right to:
“Provide the funeral home with a casket or urn you buy elsewhere. e
funeral provider cannot refuse to handle a casket or urn you bought on-
line, at a local casket store, or somewhere else – or charge you a fee to do it.
e funeral home cannot require you to be there when the casket or urn is
delivered to them.
Make funeral arrangements without embalming. No state law requires
routine embalming for every death. Some states require embalming or
refrigeration if the body is not buried or cremated within a certain time;
some states don’t require it at all. In most cases, refrigeration is an accept-
able alternative.…”
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Every state has dierent details about exactly how it works, but the
short answer is: Yes, you can do it.
But Why Now?
I
’m not terminally ill, and I hope to be around for several more decades.
So building a con now might seem a waste of storage space. I have
the opposite opinion: It creates storage space.
is con has removable shelves. So it will hold books (or record
albums or bourbon bottles) until I die. en it will hold me. It’s also a
great yard decoration during Halloween – my wife’s favorite holiday.
Surprisingly, there is not much literature out there about making
cons. If you want to read more about the details of the process in
19th-century England, I recommend “Con-making & Undertaking,”
edited by Paul Hasluck (Cassell & Co., 1913).
“Con-making & Undertaking” details construction of two types of
cons: the Lancashire pattern and the Southern Counties pattern. e
Lancashire form uses sides that are bent around the bottom board using
a re lit inside the con. e Southern Counties form uses sides that are
bent around the bottom using saw kerfs to help encourage the bend.
In the summer of 2014, a group of friends and I built cons using
both methods. While the Lancashire con was more exciting to build,
Not the only shape. Paul Hasluck’s book on cons also featured this image of cons in
the American pattern in the early 20th century.
Coffin
Pl. 12
B. Morrow-Cribbs Inv. Del. et Sculp
12"
10"
18"
COFFIN CHAPTER 21
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adult. Unless you are going into the con-making business, you can skip
the template and use your height and some standard measurements.
Take your height and add about 2" to set the length of the bottom
board. Measure your width at your shoulders (mine is shy of 22"). Add
1" to that number – the breast of the con – and that measurement is
the width of your bottom board.
Draw a centerline down the bottom board. At the head of the bottom
board, mark its width as 12". Measure 18" down from the headboard and
draw a line across the width of the bottom board. at point is the max-
imum width of your bottom board (just under 23" in my example – two
1x12s). Down at the foot of the bottom board, mark the width as 10".
en it’s connect-the-dots. Join the headboard to the line across the
breast. Join the line across the breast to the footboard. e layout is done.
See the plate on page 368 for an illustration of the layout.
it was tricky to make the bend with kiln-dried wood. We had to soak the
parts for a long time – and get a team of people to manage the re and
the bend. Even then, it was touch-and-go. One of the con’s sides split
badly during the bend on our rst attempt. (Our second attempt went
much better.)
Just like with making chairs, green wood or air-dried wood is better
for bending. Because getting wide planks of green or air-dried pine is
dicult in the city, I recommend you try the Southern Counties con.
It is easy to make with home-center wood and with minimal assistance.
Lay Out the Bottom
H
istorically, shops that made cons would keep a series of templates
for the dierent sizes, from infant all the way up to a full-grown
Glue up. If using dimensional wood, you’ll need to glue up at least two boards to
create the bottom, sides and lid. My con was less than 23" wide – just enough to
squeeze by with two 1x12s.
Bigger at the top. e top and bottom of the con toe out about 6°. Cut this bevel on
the ends by eye with a handsaw. Plane the ends smooth.
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Con Walls
T
he sides of the con taper in width from about 16" at the head to
14" at the foot. So that means the headboard and footboard are dif-
ferent lengths. e headboard should be 3/4" x 12" x 16". e footboard
should be 3/4" x 10" x 14" (standard adult sizes).
Once you have cut these two pieces to size, nail them to the bottom
board with 6d headed nails – about ve or six across the width. After
those bits are nailed on you’ll need to plane their long edges to match
the angle on the bottom. is is easily done with a jack plane.
e sides of the con start about 12" longer than the bottom board.
After they are kerfed and nailed on, you’ll trim them ush. e extra
length is handy because it gives you leverage and something to hold onto
while you make the bend.
Glue up panels for the two sides then taper them in width from 16"
(maybe a little more) at the headboard to 14" (maybe a little more) at the
footboard. Note: is taper is cut on only one long edge. e other long
edge remains square to the ends.
Shape the Bottom Board
C
ut out the long edges of the bottom board but don’t cut the bottom
board to its nished length. ose two cuts are angled slightly to
make the headboard and footboard of the con toe out slightly.
Hasluck’s book says the headboard and footboard should toe out
about 6°, so cut a 6° angle at both ends of the bottom.
Now you need to do a little planing on the long edges of the bottom
to smooth out the sharp corner at the breastline. If that area is gently
curved, the sides will bend a lot easier around the bottom.
Hasluck says you can use the sidewall of a con smoothing plane to
lay out this shape. We tried this and it worked quite well. Clean up the
long edges of the bottom board.
Before moving onto the walls of the con, you should clean up the
broad faces of the bottom board, especially if the con is going to be
used as furniture in the interim. If the con will be lined with cloth or
pitch, skip this step.
Two cons. e boat shape of a con smoother is ideal for fairing the curves on the
long edges of the bottom board.
Prop it up. Hasluck suggests propping the bottom up on a scrap to make it easier to
nail on the headboard and footboard. Good call.
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Now you can lay out the kerfs that will allow the sides to bend around
the bottom board. Cons typically use ve kerfs that are spaced 1/2"
apart. e center kerf sits on the widest point of the breastline.
Several sources suggest there are two ways to cut the kerfs: straight
down or at an angle that radiates from the center. All the sources I could
Not calculated. You don’t have to know the exact angle of where the bottom meets the
headboard or footboard. Just make them match.
Easy jack work. Mark the 2" taper on one of the long edges of the sides. Remove this
material using a jack plane. Plane the second side to match the rst.
Con advice. Here you can see Hasluck’s drawing for the Southern Counties con,
including the two dierent ways to kerf the sides.
“In order to
create something
that functions
properly – a
container, a
chair, a house –
its essence has to
be explored; for
it should serve
its purpose to
perfection, i.e.
it should fulll
its function
practically and
be durable,
inexpensive and
‘beautiful.’”
— Walter
Gropius
(1883-1969),
founder of
Bauhaus
COFFIN CHAPTER 21
376 377
Drive nails in about every 2" if you want the thing to be bulletproof.
Space them every 3" if you are resigned to being worm food.
Once the sides are nailed on, you can trim them ush to the head-
board and footboard with a handsaw.
After that, you simply need to ush all the joints and level the top
edges of the carcase so everything is in the same plane. e lid is a simple
panel – you’ll likely have to glue up three boards to create it. After you
nd suggest that sawing them straight down is the way to go. I haven’t
tried the angled kerfs so I cannot say if the advice is bunk or not.
Saw the kerfs and leave 1/8" of solid wood remaining.
Attach the Side Pieces
I
f you have carefully prepared the bottom and the sides, then this part
is easy. Nail one side to the footboard and the bottom board below the
area that needs to bend. (Use 6d headed nails, of course.)
Once you get half the side nailed down, take a break for tea. e bend
will be easier if you pour a teakettle full of boiling water over the kerfed
section. e heat and moisture make it much less likely that the sides
will crack when you bend them.
Pour the scalding water over the kerfs – both inside and out. en
immediately press the side down. It should move without too much
complaint. Hold it in place and tack the side in place with 6d nails.
Flip the con over and repeat the process for the other side piece.
Perfect kerfs. To make sure we got the kerfs right on the rst try, we used a fence to
guide the saw.
Transfer around. If you want to be careful with your kerfs, transfer the cutlines from
the inside faces of the sides to the outside. en trim the sides ush to the box.
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get the panel glued up, put it on your workbench and lay the carcase up-
side down on the panel. Trace around the carcase. Saw the lid to shape.
You don’t need the lid just yet, so clean up the saw marks and get it
ready to nail down when the time comes.
Many simple cons included a bit of moulding around the base or
some sort of faux nish to comfort the grieving that they weren’t com-
plete cheapskates. Don’t fall for it. No one cares if you were able to aord
miters or a fancy nish.
In the Meantime
I
f the con is for immediate use, it should be given a coat of raw lin-
seed oil, according to Hasluck, then covered entirely in boiling pitch.
en the exterior of the con is covered in plain blue dress material that
is axed with tacks.
If the con will be for an occupant in the distant future you can
nish it like furniture. You can add shelves to the interior to hold books,
record albums or liquor bottles. is part is up to you. If you are going to
make it a bookcase, check out the chapter on bookcases for advice on the
three most common sizes of books you’ll need to accommodate.
I nished my unit to hold vinyl albums. e shelves are spaced about
15" apart to allow plenty of room for 12" albums. It was dicult to space
the shelves precisely because the sides of the con are tapered. Not only
that, the pine had warped a bit since assembly. So getting a precise t
was a fun exercise with a bevel gauge and a block plane.
e shelves are tacked in place through the con sides with 6d head-
ed nails to make them easy to remove. en I also tacked in angled cleats
Five steps. Here is Charles Hayward’s drawing of how his family built cons (Hay-
ward says his rst project as a child was a con he built as a bed for his kitten).
In the end. Traditional cons would look like this before they went into the ground.
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What’s important. With a few removable shelves, you have a spacious bookcase that
can hang on a French cleat attached to the wall. e shelves rest on nailed-on cleats.
e French cleats are bolted to the case so the unit will hold a lot of weight.
MY COFFIN
NO. PART SIZES (INCHES)
T W L
1 Bottom 3/4 22-1/2 78
1 Headboard 3/4 12 16
1 Footboard 3/4 10 14
2 Sides 3/4 16 90*
1 Lid 3/4 25 90*
16 Cleats for shelves 3/4 3/4 11
1 Top shelf** 3/4 11-1/8 19
1 Second shelf** 3/4 11-1/8 19-3/8
1 Third shelf** 3/4 11-1/8 16-1/2
1 Bottom shelf** 3/4 11-1/8 12-3/4
2 French cleats 1 3 17
* Overlong; trim to t
** These shelf lengths are for my con. Yours may vary. These are a starting point.
above and below each shelf for some Soviet-style over-building.
I painted the outside then asked my daughter Katy to paint a few
images from some of our favorite records. She chose some awesome
artwork from Queens of the Stone Age.
e con hangs on a French cleat. Each cleat is 1" x 3" x 17" and is
made using hard maple. e cleat on the cabinet is bolted through the
case with 5/16" x 2" carriage bolts, large fender washers and nuts. e
cleat on the wall is attached to two studs with 3/8" x 3" lag screws. I can
climb this thing like a ladder, so I’m certain it will hold my records.
at will do nicely until the con and I need to take a dirt nap.
